2024 09 22
Writing is hard. I woke up this morning with a great story playing out in my head. Often, Iāll awake in the middle of the night, in the midst of a dream which seems like an amazing story, only to wake up hours later and reassess the dream in the light of day as not very interesting after all. That said, todayās story was formed in my waking moments, while fully conscious of what I was crafting. Excitedly, I rushed downstairs to my laptop and began to jot down my thoughts on the screen before immediately hitting a wall and losing all momentum. The sentences sounded fantastic in my head but proved impossible to get onto paper. Likely, my conscious brain began to over-think and harshly judge the words once they existed in the actual world, where other people might end up reading them.
All that said, Iām considering this a step in the right direction. Writing is not easy, art is not easy. I know this, but Iām optimistic that continued effort to translate these thoughts into real-life words will eventual pay off, much as my decades-long efforts into photography have given me a more comfortable approach to turning my ideas into photos.
-Clayton
Allison at the cabin in the Northwoods. St Germain, Wisconsin. July, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Writing is hard. I woke up this morning with a great story playing out in my head. Often, Iāll awake in the middle of the night, in the midst of a dream which seems like an amazing story, only to reassess the dream in the light of day as not very interesting after all. That said, todayās story was formed in my waking moments, while fully conscious of what I was crafting. Excitedly, I then rushed downstairs to my laptop and began to jot down my thoughts on the screen before immediately hitting a wall and losing all momentum. The sentences sounded fantastic in my head but proved impossible to get onto paper. Likely, my conscious brain began to over-think and harshly judge the words once they existed in the actual world, where other people might end up reading them.
All that said, Iām considering this a step in the right direction. Writing is not easy, art is not easy. I know this, but Iām optimistic that continued effort to translate these thoughts into real-life words will eventual pay off, much as my decades-long efforts into photography have given me a more comfortable approach to turning my ideas into photos.
-Clayton
2024 09 20
Nathan Pearceās show with Clint Woodside of Deadbeat Club starts in a few hours at my See You Soon studio space! He took the train up yesterday from his home in southern Illinois and we spent some time talking while he hung his work, which is beautiful and looks great printed large. His visit motivated me to get back into my own work, of which I had a big folder full of images from my work-in-progress Illinois series which I hadnāt yet touched. Iāve just been too busy this year to keep up on everything Iāve started or want to start doing. While this in itself is stressful, it made me excited for the winter months ahead as I will have no shortage of things to keep me busy.
Hope you can make it to the show today!
-Clayton
Stop sign, reflection. Chicago, Illinos. May, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Nathan Pearceās show with Clint Woodside of Deadbeat Club starts in a few hours at my See You Soon studio space! He took the train up yesterday from his home in southern Illinois and we spent some time talking while he hung his work, which is beautiful and looks great printed large. His visit motivated me to get back into my own work, of which I had a big folder full of images from my work-in-progress Illinois series which I hadnāt yet touched. Iāve just been too busy this year to keep up on everything Iāve started or want to start doing. While this in itself is stressful, it made me excited for the winter months ahead as I will have no shortage of things to keep me busy.
Hope you can make it to the show today!
-Clayton
2024 03 27
Everyone is talking about this book that unlocks your creativity. You know the one: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. While, yes, Iāve read it and do find it worthwhile, I tend to be suspicious of things that everyone seems to be talking about. That said, it doesnāt matter where your creativity comes from or what motivates you to make the work, so long as youāre making it (so please use my affiliate link to buy a dozen copies of Rubinās book for all your friends).
On the topic of making art and finding inspiration, this video (below) popped into my feed and pushed me to write about it here, per my blog rule: if I consume a video on youtube which I like I must create something relating to it here. The ying and the yang of creative time management, or something like that.
Bronques was a sort of rival/colleague of mine a few decades back in a time we both had popular nightlife photo blogs (his far more popular than mine). For me, that era of going out many nights, making photos, and then posting them online for anyone to look at was formative to me. Connecting Bronquesā video to how it relates to this is the idea of shutting your brain off when creating. Back when I was doing everyoneisfamous.com, there was very little big picture thinking going on. I was on auto-pilot each night, doing my best to make fun and compelling images people might want to see and then posting them as soon as possible without any hesitation fueled by what people might think of them, or me, or whatever! This is not to say I thought of my photos as art (I didnāt), but the sentiment remains. These days, I try to live by this same mentality but getting old weighs on you in so many ways, and I often find myself second-guessing what to post on Instagram for various reasons. Far from the locked-in and confident artist approach I am now putting more effort into attaining.
Last night (while sitting on the couch, not partying), I was served a tweet showing a live stream of musician Deadmau5 reluctantly watching a fan-created vocal track, which he ended up immediately loving and using on his album. The fun takeaway for me, aside from the obvious one in that the internet enables this sort of thing to happen in the first place, was how instantly Deadmau5 knew what he was hearing was it, even though heād need to modify some annoying filters the stranger on twitter had used. Itās that built-in level of taste or vision that sets people apart. How exciting it is when someone both has a strong opinion about something they made being beautiful and you agree with them that it is!
Consuming ideas, consuming art, wasting time. These arenāt necessarily bad things so long as you then take what youāve consumed and turn it into something new. āYou waste years by not being able to waste hoursā was a line in an audiobook I was listening to this morning, which further connects into the theme of this post. Doing nothing is a good thing as it allows your brain time to work, being free to think and ponder or do a livestream on twitter with your fans.
We all have brilliance inside of us, itās figuring out how to best communicate yours that is the challenging part.
-Clayton
Sun reflects off a building on my morning walk with a dog weāve been watching. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024 Ā© Clayton Hauck
Everyone is talking about this book that unlocks your creativity. You likely know the one: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. While, yes, Iāve read it and do find it worthwhile, I tend to be suspicious of things that everyone seems to be talking about. That said, it doesnāt matter where your creativity comes from or what motivates you to make the work, so long as youāre making it (so please use my affiliate link to buy a dozen copies of Rubinās book for all your friends).
On the topic of making art and finding inspiration, this video (below) popped into my feed and pushed me to write about it here, per my blog rule: if I consume a video on youtube which I like I must create something relating to it here. The ying and the yang of creative time management, or something like that.
Bronques was a sort of rival/colleague of mine a few decades back in a time we both had popular nightlife photo blogs (his far more popular than mine). For me, that era of going out many nights, making photos, and then posting them online for anyone to look at was formative to me. Connecting Bronquesā video to how it relates to this is the idea of shutting your brain off when creating. Back when I was doing everyoneisfamous.com, there was very little big picture thinking going on. I was on auto-pilot each night, doing my best to make fun and compelling images people might want to see and then posting them as soon as possible without any hesitation fueled by what people might think of them, or me, or whatever! These days, I try to live by this same mentality but getting old weighs on you in so many ways, and I often find myself, as an example, second-guessing what to post on Instagram. This is far from the locked-in and confident artist approach I am now putting more effort into attaining.
Last night (while sitting on the couch, not partying), I was served a tweet showing a live stream of musician Deadmau5 reluctantly watching a fan-created vocal track, which he ended up immediately loving and using on his album. The fun takeaway for me, aside from the obvious one in that the internet enables this sort of thing to happen in the first place, was how instantly Deadmau5 knew what he was hearing was it, even though heād need to modify some annoying filters the stranger on twitter had used. Itās that built-in level of taste or vision that sets people apart. How exciting it is when someone both has a strong opinion about something they made being beautiful and you agree with them that it is!
Consuming ideas, consuming art, wasting time. These arenāt necessarily bad things so long as you then take what youāve consumed and turn it into something new. āYou waste years by not being able to waste hoursā was a line in an audiobook I was listening to this morning, which further connects into the theme of this post. Doing nothing is a good thing as it allows your brain time to work, being free to think and ponder or do a livestream on twitter with your fans.
We all have brilliance inside of us, itās figuring out how to best communicate yours that is the challenging part.
-Clayton
2024 01 31
I was once nominated for a photojournalism award for a project I worked on for Chicago Magazine.
I lost to John White, obviously.
Hereās a nice mini-doc about legendary Chicago photojournalist John White via CBS News Chicago. Direct link here.
Look ā we made it a whole month posting daily! Thanks for stopping by!
-Award-nominated photographer Clayton Hauck
Reflection in puddle. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. November, 2023. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Iām so glad I donāt shoot weddings anymoreā¦
I was once nominated for a photojournalism award for a project I worked on for Chicago Magazine.
I lost to John White, obviously.
Hereās a nice mini-doc about legendary Chicago photojournalist John White via CBS News Chicago. Direct link here.
Look ā we made it a whole month posting daily! Thanks for stopping by!
-Award-nominated non-wedding photographer Clayton Hauck